Let’s talk about used car values.
The Retail Excellent is what a dealer may sell it for if the car is in excellent condition. The Trade-In value Fair & Good values will be your best friend. You want to try to buy below the Trade-In Fair value. If not – then as low as possible near that price range.
Then you look over to the Pvt-Party Good Value to see what you can get for it. Depending on the condition of the vehicle (if the car has LOW miles and is in Excellent Condition), I would price the car between Pvt-Party Good and the Retail Excellent Condition Value.
Most of the time I like to sell at a nice competitive attractive price. To blow the car out FAST! So I usually price them a few hundred dollars below the Pvt-Party Good condition value. This is what you will want to do. Sometimes when you scoop the car very low, you can blow it out in a day or two by selling it for Trade-In Good condition…It all depends how FAST and how much money you want to make.
Try not to get greedy and ask too much or you’ll just be sitting on the car for a while longer. A few friends that I taught use that method of selling high. YES they might make more money per car but they end up sitting on it for weeks at a time. I personally do not like this model. You will come to figure your own method after learning from teachers.
The money is in the numbers. Car deals are abundant – They are everywhere. I am happy at 1-2k profit per car sometimes less. We all need to enjoy life too … Can’t let that pass us by right?
Example of the (PME) Tactic. As of April-June 2009 Bluebook:
I just picked a 1999 Nissan Sentra GXE. Look in your Kelly Blue Book under Nissan, you will see the year at the top of the book. Once you get to the 1999 Nissan Sentra GXE model you will see…
1. You want to look at the (Trade-In Fair) Value* so you will see it says $1,675
2. Look to the right and view the (Retail Excellent Value) which is $5,275
Again this is what a dealer might ask for the car if it were in excellent condition. You never want to sell your car at this price unless you don’t want to sell the car. You could have a good chance if the car has really low miles and looks like new. You can always test the market and just post an ad to see what happens.
3. Take a look at the (Private Party Good Value) which is $3,450
You want to buy your cars below or near the trade in fair values.
Now you know the price points — where to start to look and where you can sell at. 90% of the time I list my cars for sale BELOW the (Private Party Good Value) even though the car is in EXCELLENT condition.
The owner was asking $2,500 for it on Craigslist. I was the FIRST to call him, the FIRST to look at it and the first to make the offer.
I managed to scoop it for $1,600 — cash on the spot. How and why was I able to do that? Good question! I looked at the car and felt the seller out. He really wanted to get rid of the car because of a recent new truck purchase that he had made.
When negotiating a deal you can start a bid extra low because of the natural bid bounce back that will occur OR have a GOOD reason why you will stick at your initial offer. My initial offer was $1,600 cash. I knew that he would make a come back of $1,700 or $1,800, and he did at $1,800…I gave him a small smirk on my face …like – an “I’m Not sure look” …not a happy smirk but a Thinking Smirk!… You need to use your bluff sometimes…
Before looking at the car I had formulated a game plan of what to say when we were in negotiation mode. I said to myself, “I will tell him that I am also going to look at a 2000 Nissan GXE, A newer Nissan that was going for $2,000…” $500.00 less than his Nissan and a year newer!
I made-up a competitor! He does not have a clue of what other cars you are looking at so simply make one up! Just use my example.
What I was basically saying was “Look, I have $1,600 cash now. If you are not interested than I will look at this other 2000 Nissan Sentra and the seller is only asking $2,000”. He looked at his wife first then looked at me and said ok… You got a deal!
DONE DEAL! He had the title with him and signed it off to me on the spot. I mentioned that I was buying the car for my sister-in-law and asked if he would mind leaving my name off the title so I would be able to transfer the title directly to her name when she arrived town …which was true.
Another way to bid…
You can bid extra low at first and get the price you really wanted in the first place and play the game like that. Example, “Look I’ll give you $1,400″…he will bounce to $1,700 or $1,800 and you can say ok, I’ll meet you in the middle… how about $1,650? Get the idea?
It is always best to have a game plan in your mind before you buy or sell a car. It is the art of negotiation (Be Prepared To Win!)
You will do this with almost every deal to create a deal. This is how the profits add up. You will easily add up profits using this method and also by applying the quick bonus spruce up tactics that I talk about later.